The present invention concerns hinges, and in particular a vehicle hinge facilitating painting and assembly of the vehicle.
It is particularly advantageous to paint vehicle body panels simultaneously with the vehicle during assembly since this reduces or eliminates color mismatches and also provides assembly plant advantages such as reduced paint waste and labor. However, in modern vehicles, the body panels are positioned close to each other for improved appearance, reduced wind resistance and noise, and the like. Hence, some vehicle body panels are not positioned on the vehicle with enough clearance around the body panel edges to allow adequate painting of the body panel edges and the adjacent area on the vehicle. For example, in a sedan or minivan, the vehicle rear gate or trunk lid includes an edge adjacent the rear window upper sheet metal of the vehicle body, which edge and window lower sheet metal cannot be adequately painted if the rear gate is closed, but which edge shadows the rear window lower sheet metal if the rear gate is opened. Hence, present vehicle assembly techniques either include removing the rear gate lid, or include a special painting operation where the rear gate is painted in a first position and then painted again along the problem edge area with the rear gate held in a second position. A hinge such as that of the present invention can aid in such special painting operations.
Further, it is desirable to provide a hinge that is compact so that a minimum amount of space is used and so that optimal visual aesthetics are achieved, while still satisfying the necessary functional requirements of the hinge. Yet another desirable feature is a hinge made from parts that minimize the amount of scrap trimmed from raw blanks when making the hinge, thus minimizing material costs, and also that minimizes the amount of subassembly operations required for assembly.
Thus, a hinge is desired to facilitate improved painting and assembly of a vehicle, but which is compact, low in material cost and does not require multiple secondary forming operations.